Set Your Heart

Wow! Life gets busy. I have been on the go a lot lately. It is easy to forget some things that you intend to do. It just happens. When I began this blog I intended to write something every day. That commitment lasted a whole two days. I am laughing at good intentions. It is so easy for the demands of life to push them out of the way.

Those demands are a lot like the current on a river. When a boat is tied to the shore, it will stay put against the current. If for some reason that tie is let loose, the current will natuarally carry the boat down stream away from where the owner inteded for it to remain.

Our spiritual walk is that way as well. We can have all the right intentions, but if we do not remain tied to the shore of devotion to God, the current of a busy life will carry us away from that devotion. The writer of Hebrews encouraged us to make sure we did not lose that tie. He said we needed to give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Has that happened to you?

There is a story in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles 11 and 12. It is about those troubled days when the nation was split in two. Jeroboam took the northern 10 tribes and sought to make them a nation of themselves. Rehoboam consolidated the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. In Chapter 11 and vers 16 we read of the people of the north who had set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel. They followed Rehoboam and strengthened his kingdom for three years. It is amazing what strength comes from setting our hearts to seek the Lord.

At the end of chapter 12 we read in verse 14 that Rehoboam did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. Isn't it amazing that the simple thing of preparing or setting our hearts to seek the Lord can strengthen a people, or the lack of doing that one simple thing can bring about evil from our conduct.

There is a key verse to the change that took place. It is found in chapter 12 and verse 1. "Now it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kindgom and had strenthened himself, that he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him."

The many who set their hearts to seek the Lord can strengthen a people. The one who sets out to strengthen himself ends up weakening the people. Think about it. Where are you located in this story?